NATO summit declaration says ‘Ukraine’s future is in NATO’

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, US President Joe Biden, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda and NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana attend the assembly of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) through the NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 11, 2023. (Photo by Petras MALUKAS / AFP)

VILNIUS — NATO leaders have agreed at a summit in Vilnius that Ukraine’s future lies throughout the alliance however stopped wanting handing Kyiv the invitation or timetable for accession that the nation has been in search of.

At the identical time, NATO dropped the requirement for Ukraine to fulfil a so-called Membership Action Plan (MAP), successfully eradicating a hurdle on Kyiv’s manner into the alliance.

“Ukraine’s future is in NATO,” a declaration agreed by the leaders on Tuesday stated, including Kyiv’s Euro-Atlantic integration had moved past the necessity for a Membership Action Plan.

“We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met,” the declaration stated.

While leaders didn’t specify the circumstances Ukraine wants to satisfy, they stated the alliance would assist Kyiv to make progress on army interoperability in addition to on further democratic and safety sector reforms. — Reuters